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Constitutional Scholars Pipeline brings law to life

One Friday a month the University of South Carolina School of Law welcomes 40 of the
youngest law students you’ll ever meet. They arrive by bus just before noon, shuttled
to campus from middle schools across the Richland One School District.

Welcome to the law school’s Constitutional Scholars Pipeline Program, which pairs
seventh and eighth graders with USC law students who teach them about the law and
coach them for a moot court. Started in 2013 as part of a Liberty Fellowship by former
USC law professor and associate dean Danielle Holley-Walker, the service program is
now run by assistant professor of law Claire Raj.

“There’s some substantive learning, but I’m most concerned with exposure, exposure,
exposure,” says Raj, who previously ran a similar program at Howard University. “I
want them to be at USC, I want them to see the law school, I want them to meet our
students and get excited about higher education.”

Over the course of the program, the middle school students learn the basic principles
of constitutional law and courtroom procedure, how to apply facts to a case and a
little bit of public speaking. At each session, they also pick up a few handy new
words.

I want them to be at USC, I want them to see the law school, I want them to meet our
students and get excited about higher education.

Claire Raj, assistant professor of law, director of the Constitutional Scholars Pipeline
Program

“We expose them to the language of the law,” says Raj, who has devoted much of her
career to child advocacy. “It gives them a little bit of an edge and makes them feel
like they are part of the legal community once they start to use terms like ‘plaintiff’
and ‘defendant.’”

Of course, the program also serves another critical function. All four of the participating
middle schools have largely minority enrollment, and as Raj explains, the program
is intended as a diversity pipeline.

“We’re trying to reach kids who don’t generally have as much access to the law school
and the legal profession,” she says. “We want them to see what law school is like,
get some experience and hopefully, if it interests them, to realize this is something
they can pursue.”

Meet Your Mentors

To maximize one-on-one time between mentors and mentees, the 40 middle school students
are paired up with 40 mentors — including law students like Cameo Joseph, Kinteshia
Scott and Justin Montgomery, who look at these kids and see themselves, only younger.

“I originally came to law school with the idea that I wanted to work with juveniles
and that’s still something I want to do,” says Montgomery, who attended USC as an
undergrad and is now in his second year of law school. “I can relate to them, coming
from a school like the schools they come from. Where I grew up, nobody knew anything
outside of Sumter. This puts you in a position to really help make a difference in
somebody’s life.”

Joseph, a Greenville native now in her third year of law school at Carolina, feels
much the same way. As she explains, she never had a mentor when she was in middle
school and wishes she had. “I kind of floated through life and, luckily, I landed
here,” she says. “I could have very easily landed somewhere less positive. There’s
a tremendous difference that can be made by helping kids figure out what they want
to do at an early age, even if it’s not the law.”

The mentors, for their part, get paid in personal satisfaction.

“Last year, I had two mentees, and I loved them both very dearly,” says Scott, a second
year law student from Charlotte and USC alumnae. “One of them I became very close
to — I saw so much of myself in her, that quiet, nerdy girl who wasn’t very confident.
But by the end of the program she would stand up and articulate her thoughts. I just
thought, ‘It’s taken me until law school to do that, and to see her accomplish that
in two semesters is just amazing’.”

By the end of the program — I’m gonna cry — she said I was someone she looks up to.
It’s just a really awesome experience. I had never really worked with kids before,
but to have that experience? There was no way I wasn’t going to do it this year.

Cameo Joseph, third-year Carolina law student

Joseph nods as she listens to her classmates. There’s a common thread to their stories,
and it’s one of the main reasons so many of them come back to volunteer again.

“At the beginning of the course last year we did a worksheet where they had to name
a person they admire or look up to, and my mentee couldn’t come up with anyone,” she
says. “By the end of the program — I’m gonna cry — she said I was someone she looks
up to. It’s just a really awesome experience. I had never really worked with kids
before, but to have that experience? There was no way I wasn’t going to do it this
year.”

May It Please the Court

The kids who participate in the Constitutional Scholars Pipeline Program are chosen
by their school administrators. Some are shy, some are more outgoing, but watch them
pour in on the first day, watch them participate in a series of ice breakers led by
the law students, watch them start to bond with their assigned mentors and you can
see it on their faces — they all want to be there.

To maintain that interest over the long haul, the program focuses on legal cases relevant
to students their age — cases involving cyber-bullying, search and seizure and the
limits of free speech in a school environment.

They ask good questions: ‘Why do we use this particular word?’ ‘Why do I have to say,
“May it please the court?”’ They really are eager to learn.

Amanda Harding, second-year Carolina law student

“The main case that they learn about is a first amendment case called Tinker v. Des
Moines,” says Raj. “The holding in that case is, ‘If speech materially and substantially
disrupts the classroom, then schools can limit it.’ To hear the kids get up there
and use legal terms like that — words that they don’t use in their everyday life —
is pretty great. It takes a while to get there, but they do get there. And that’s
what these guys are there to help them with.”

But mentor Amanda Harding, a second-year law student from Cypress, Texas, gives as
much of the credit to the kids. “They’re really curious,” she says. “They ask good
questions: ‘Why do we use this particular word?’ ‘Why do I have to say, “May it please
the court?”’ They really are eager to learn.”

That enthusiasm is shared by the other mentors and by Raj, who looks forward to the
kids’ arrival each month and then watches with keen interest as her students work
one-on-one with their mentees.

“Right now, it’s one of my favorite things about my job,” says Raj. “When I leave
those Friday sessions, as corny as it sounds, my heart feels full. I walk out feeling
like I did something good today. It will take your breath away.”

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